Tips for Getting into K-drama

If you're one of those unfortunate people who have not discovered the charms of Korean drama (outside of my blog, that is), let me give you a few tips.  Kdrama is different than what we are used to here in America.  You probably won't see tons of violence, sex, or bad language. There may be some plot developments that have you rolling your eyes at the cheesiness of the writing--evil step-mothers, amnesia, and people who were supposedly long dead suddenly being discovered alive and well. However, there will be lots of romance--Kdrama is all about the love story, which is why I love it!  So take a risk, jump in, and visit an exotic locale with beautiful people.  You'll find the drama that makes you glad you did.

1.  Give the drama time.
Like the first season of an American sitcom, often the first episode or two of a Korean drama isn't very good.  Because the series are so short (usually 16-20 episodes in total), the dramas have to develop a lot of back story and introduce characters in a short amount of time.  This sometimes doesn't work very well.  Give it time and let the story unfold.  If you still aren't into the show by the third episode, move on to something else.

2.  Never get attached to the second lead actor.
Sorry, but he just ISN'T going to get the girl.  No matter how amazing and wonderful and perfect the supporting guy is, he will get his heart broken.  It's not fair, and sometimes it will make you really mad, because no one that nice should get shafted, but it will happen.  He will get dumped, rejected, used, abused, friend-zoned, and that's just the reality of Korean dramas.  I hope someday I discover one where the main girl falls in love with the second guy, but so far it hasn't happened, so I just plan on feeling sorry for him but not getting emotionally involved.  It's a lot safer that way.  Believe me, when, in my first drama, the "right" guy did not end up with the girl, I thought my heart was going to break into a million pieces.  Now I know that's just how it goes.

3.  Don't expect tons of PDA.
One aspect of Korean culture seems to be that they aren't very touchy-feely as a rule, at least in public.  In contrast, Americans hug people they barely know and sleep with people they completely don't know (at least on TV), so be ready to be a little surprised by the lack of physical affection.  This doesn't mean that Koreans are prudes or unemotional--their culture is just different.  If you give it time, you will find that, because the physical aspect of relationships is not exaggerated, it actually means a lot more emotionally. Take hand-holding, for instance.  When the main couple hold hands for the first time, it's seriously exciting, because of the investment that you've put in to the development of their characters and their relationship.

4.  Don't compare Kdrama to American TV.
Ok, I know that I was just comparing, but seriously, don't do it.  We just don't really have the same genre here in the States, so it's better not to compare.

5.  Do some research before you start a show.
I've found that it's better to have an idea what the show is about before I start it.  There are a few series out there that had seriously bad endings, which made even die-hard fans really angry.  If you've ever watched a show here where the main character gets "killed" in a season finale, and then over the summer the show gets cancelled, you'll understand how important it is to know that a show ends well--it can make a big difference!

Also, there is the mood of the series.  Some shows are light and fluffy, and not too serious at all.
Some are made targeting teenagers--they're still lots of fun, but if you aren't into that kind of thing, you may hate it.  There are also melodramas, where bad things happen and everyone dies in the most beautiful, heartrending way possible.  You may want to know that a show is a tear-jerker before you start.

I also have found my favorite actors and so I tend to start with watching the shows they have been in.  It gives a good place to start, because there just are so many dramas out there.  It can get pretty overwhelming just knowing where to start.

Maybe that's a future post--Best Dramas for Beginners--hmm...

Anyway, I hope you take the plunge and give Kdrama a try.  It's worth it, believe me!

Music Monday: Simon & Garfunkel, "April Come She Will"

The first time I heard this song was at an Eric Johnson concert.  He did a beautiful cover of it.  Then I heard the song (the Simon & Garfunkel original) on an episode of Angel Eyes, a Korean drama.  It perfectly suited the bittersweet nature of the drama, of love found and lost, and found again.  While I did not finish the drama (I didn't really want to cry my eyes out, even if the show was beautiful), I had to listen to the song nonstop for days.  I hope you enjoy it!

7 Goals for the New Year

I don't know about you, but time is flying by!  Someone told me recently, "The days go by slowly, the months pass quickly, the years fly."  I think that matches my experience too.

I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions, mostly because they don't seem to last past January, but seeing how 2015 is passing so quickly, it just seems to be a natural time to look back on the past and make plans for the future. I've been thinking back on the person I was at the start of my marriage and who I am today--and so much has changed!  For the better, I think.  I'm much more comfortable with myself now than I was back then.  The way I live my life is very different too, not just because I share a life with a wonderful man, but because together we have made choices that have helped us to move toward meeting our goals, focus on what is important to us, and cut out everything else.

So instead of resolutions, I decided to make goals for what I hope to accomplish this year.  

To keep with my resolve to be a more balanced person, I have made the goals in 7 general categories. You can keep things as general or specific as you wish, depending on what you want from your life.  

1.  Life/Personal

     This category is for those large, overarching goals you may want to make.  What do you want your life to be like?  Are you headed in that direction? Are the decisions you make on a day-to-day basis leading you toward what you really want long-term?  

     For example, my goal for this year is to increase our human family from two people to three. Because of the impact a new baby has on a family, all our decisions, whether career, financial, or health-related, are all leading us to be in a better position to be prepared parents.           

2.  Career/Intellectual

     Making a goal in this area seems fairly obvious to me, like changing jobs, learning a new skill, or going to grad school.  Or it could be simpler, like taking an adult education course or reading a book that will help you grow intellectually.

      I'm hoping to take a little break to care for our baby, so I'm not making any career goals for now. However, I am working on learning Spanish.  I won't be fluent anytime soon, but I'm making progress towards my lifelong goal of being bilingual.

3.  Financial
     Let's face it: we can all stand to make financial goals, right? Financial goals can be small, like saving a little each month or making a budget, or big, like paying off a student loan.
     For us, since I'd like to be a stay-at-home mom for a bit, financially we are trying to pay off as much debt as possible, while also saving as much as possible.  Sounds tough, right?  Well, we've been doing that since we bought our house, so to a certain extent, it has become a habit.

4.  Health
     This one sounds easy: how can you improve your health?  I think it's easier said than done, though.  Take exercise, for instance.  I'm really good at starting an exercise routine.  And terrible at keeping it going.  This is a lifetime battle for me, and I intend to keep fighting.

5.  Spiritual
     I plan on going to church more this year.  It's a chance to meet up with people socially, and a chance to dwell on something greater than myself and my problems.  We could all use something like that, right?

6.  Home
     When you own a fixer-upper, there is always something that need to be done. This year we plan to switch out our front lawn with drought tolerant plants, as you know.  I also need a new automatic watering system installed in my garden in preparation for summer.  I'm sure other projects will present themselves too, but for now those are my goals for the year.

7.  Creative
     For a balanced life, it's so important to find a creative outlet.  I personally need creativity a bit more than the average person, I think.  Actually, recently I've been bingeing on creative craft projects at home, and I've found them to be very satisfying.  It's just a good reminder that I need to make projects where I can be creative a priority in my busy schedule.

Music Monday: Jung Eun Ji, "If I Leave"

One of the great things about my obsession with Kdrama is that I've discovered many songs and artists that I love--ones I probably would have never heard in other circumstances.  

Take Jung Eun Ji, for instance.  One of the members of the South Korean girl group A Pink, she has a phenomenal singing ability.  However, I probably would not have noticed if I had heard one of A Pink's songs on the radio.  From what I can tell, like many Korean pop bands, the group seems to focus more on dancing and lip-syncing rather than vocals, instrumentation, and composition.  Which is a big shame, because Eun Ji is amazing.  She has a huge vocal range, and an unusually powerful voice for such a young singer.   

Lucky for me, I discovered Eun Ji in the TV series Trot Lovers, where she plays a girl who is trying to become a professional trot singer.  The show itself is cute and satisfying, but I was held spellbound by Eun Ji's singing.  In nearly every episode, she sang a capella, which is quite an extraordinary feat. Her capacity for evoking an emotional response in her audience is also notable.

The video below is of Jung Eun Ji's performance of a well-known Korean song, "If I Leave." I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

from youtube.com

Front Lawn Transformation: Planning Stages

The time has come...to get rid of our front lawn and start a more water-wise, environmentally friendly landscape.

Our house, when we bought it, came with a very tiny--but very attractive--lush green triangle of lawn in the front yard.  The previous owner was obviously a lawn man, and the grass was golf-course perfect.

Awesome and I are NOT perfect lawn people.  I love gardening, as you know, but in a more meadow-like, wild, natural, and free way than the more manicured garden usually associated with lawns.  And Awesome, well, he loves the park-like lawn in theory, but since that requires a lot of work, it just isn't going to happen.

Four years and a Northern California drought since we bought the house, and the front yard triangle is a lot more brown than green.  Unless you count the weeds.  Those are green.  

I've been dreaming of transforming the front border since even before we moved in.  My roses and picket fence are crying for the company of a lot of cottage garden plants. And the "lawn"...well, it just has to go.

We are lucky to live in a town that has a Cash for Grass incentive to give homeowners money for replacing their lawns with water-wise plantings.  The program offers $1 a square foot for replacing the lawn.

We are unlucky to have such a tiny lawn.  It probably isn't worth the twenty bucks we'd receive to go through the approval process.  So we aren't going to go that way.  However, if you live in the Bay area and have a larger lawn that you'd like to replace, I'd recommend checking the program out.  It seems like a great deal.

This is what our yard looks like now:

Ugh.


This is what I'd like our front yard to look like:

Image from http://www.finegardening.com/front-yard-garden-no-time 

(Yeah, yeah, I know my yard is the size of a postage stamp, but it's still possible!  On a miniature scale.)

I've been researching steps to get the soil ready for planting.  There are several methods to choose from, some involving herbicides and shovels.  It seems to be highly recommended to sheet mulch your lawn, which basically means covering the grass with a thick layer of newspaper and compost, and waiting for a season before planting.  That would be a great method for us, if it was fall and the lawn was in the back yard, but I want the place to look better, not worse.  I found one site that says you can use the same method, but cut holes through the newspaper for the plants you are adding, so they can get established while the compost is doing its thing.  That's what I'm planning on doing, because I need somewhat-instant gratification in this case.

Our waste management offers organic compost that is made from the yard waste they collect.  It costs about $8 a truckload, so economically it's the way to go.  Of course, we have to borrow a truck to get it and spend all day shoveling it, but it's still worth it.

Plant criteria:
Must be able to withstand semi-drought conditions
Must be a reliable performer--no prima-donas in my yard!
Must love hot and sunny conditions but also tolerate afternoon shade
Must be perennial
Should be evergreen (a few deciduous plants are allowed, but I want the garden to look nice all year)

Possible plants:

Lavender:

Image from www.growinginmygarden.com 

Easy to grow, hard to kill, lavender looks nice all year, and blooms for at least six months.  Bees love it, and it is a cottage garden stand-by.  It also is an herb, so its usefulness is basically endless, which is a plus.

Rosemary:

Image from http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/rosemary.html

Another wonderful herb, I already have several rosemary plants, and love it for its ease and reliability.  Plus the wonderful smell--rosemary is a great anchor plant for any garden.  Both the upright version and the trailing version would be good for my front lawn space.  I may just transplant the plants I already own.

Thyme:

Image from bonnieplants.com

Thyme is a very versatile plant.  It comes in a variety of sizes and colors, so I may have a couple of different kinds, depending on my needs.  Thyme can make a great ground cover, and in my experience, it will sometimes reseed itself too, so one plant becomes 20 plants.

Russian Sage:

Image from dallasgardens.com

Russian sage thrives in our area.  It is being used more and more as a landscaping plant, and looks good most of the year.  I don't know if it's evergreen or not, but since I will probably only have one plant anyway, I'm not going to worry about it.

Salvia:

from galleryhip.com

from parkswholesaleplants.com

from gardencoachpictures.wordpress.com

The salvia family is huge, so there are lots of choices.  I'll probably choose a few varieties and colors.  Salvia is another performer, and like the above plants, is easy to grow and reliable.

Guara:

from gardenality.com

One of my personal favorite flowers, I have never grown guara but I love it!  It's so pretty.


There are so many other plants I could choose from.  These are just a few that I know are foolproof and do well in my area.

Obviouly, we have a lot of work to turn our plans into reality.  I'll keep you updated as our new garden unfolds.

Favorite Korean Dramas...So Far: Part 1

Yep, I'm obsessed.  I love Korean drama!  I've lost all interest for American television--it's so boring!

But Kdrama--the romance, the story-lines, the actors, the exotic locale (to me at least)--it's irresistible. Thanks to Netflix, I've fallen head over heels.

However, as my one loyal reader keeps reminding me (thanks, Awesome!), my addiction has caused me not only to neglect the housework, but blogging as well. And, while I started this post about my favorite dramas three months ago, the list grew so quickly that I gave it up.  So here I am with a [very] abbreviated list of my favorite dramas.

1.  Heartstrings (aka You've Fallen for Me)

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

A talented young rock guitarist at a performing arts university, Lee Shin seems much more cold and aloof than he really is.  This is partially because he is constantly bombarded with disgustingly adoring fans of his band, The Stupid, and also because his sole passion is music.  This all changes, albeit gradually, when he meets Lee Gyu Won, a Korean traditional music major, who not only doesn't scream and swoon when he's around, but who thinks his music is soulless and boring.  Their clash leads to a music battle to see which genre will win, rock or classical.  A lot of music, conflict, and cuteness ensue, all in the setting of a university campus.  

This drama is my all-time favorite.  I watched it 3 times in a row, then bought the DVDs and watched it again.  The initial allure was definitely the actors.  Jung Yong Hwa and Park Shin Hye are my favorite Korean actors to date, and I loved them both in You're Beautiful, where they were adorable together, but didn't end up as a couple (which basically broke my heart).  Seeing them again in this drama, where they fall in love, was very sweet and satisfying.

I also loved the music.  Both leads perform several songs, and some of the other actors sing and play as well.  This series was my first introduction to Korean traditional music.  I had no idea it was so beautiful!  There are also some fusion pieces with Korean instruments and electric guitars, which were strangely enchanting.

Since this drama, I've watched many, many others, several of which I would totally own.  However, Heartstrings continues to be my absolute favorite.  It's a little akin to my favorite comfort food.  Even the intro music makes me smile and get warm fuzzies.

2.  You Are Beautiful

from koreandrama.org

A nun-in-training, Go Mi Nyu pretends to be a boy to temporarily take her twin brother's place in an uber-famous boy band.  Drama happens as all three fellow bandmates begin to discover she's really a girl and consequently fall in love with her.

As I've mentioned before, this was my first Korean drama, and will always hold that special place in my heart.  It was definitely my favorite actors that made this series pop for me, along with the love story.  The show is probably not recommended for a first-time viewer, because it is incredibly cheesy and over the top.  Still, it was a lot of fun, and it remains the only Kdrama, other than Heartstrings, that I have watched more than once.

3.  Dream High

from FanPop.com

Dream High is about a group of misfits who join a snooty performing arts high school in the hopes of becoming the next big star.  Only one student will be chosen.  As they develop their musical ability, they experience some of the bullying and prejudice that can be rampant in high school, especially because they are all so darn talented that it threatens several of the other students.  This show is packed with music, dancing, and surprising friendships, as the students discover themselves and, for several, love.

I love voices, and this show had the most great singers.  I frequently look up some of the songs on YouTube because I like them so much.  This show also had a love triangle among the lead actors where, surprisingly, I would have been equally happy where either guy ended up with the girl.  That is a pretty unusual occurrence in Kdrama-land.


So there you have it: a few Korean dramas that I love.

Obsessed with Korean Drama

Well, I'm a little embarrassed by how long it's been since I posted.  I have lots of excuses--work, health problems (not mine or Awesome's), the holidays--but the honest truth is that I discovered a new obsession.

Korean television.

Right now your eyebrows are probably raised up into your hairline as you try to understand that.

I am addicted to Korean dramas, and it has been as surprising to me as to everyone else who knows me.

No, I'm not Korean.  I'm not Asian of any kind.  I don't speak Korean.  I don't even have any Korean friends.  Up until about four months ago, my sole exposure to Korea was summed up by serving kimchi in the cafeteria at college.

It all started when Netflix recommended a show for me with 5 stars.  Nothing ever gets recommended with 5 stars.  For me, anyway.  I read the synopsis and was intrigued by the storyline. Captain Awesome happened to be out for the evening so I knew he wouldn't be offended by any cheesy girly-ness.  So I started the first episode.  

(Looking back, I don't even think I realized the show was Korean or subtitled until it started.  Not that either of those things would have stopped me.)

I was hooked within minutes.

It started with curiosity about how the storyline would play out, but quickly became about the characters.  The main girl was so sweet and pretty, I couldn't look away.  Actually, all the characters were pretty, girls and boys.  But what really held my attention was the love story that started growing quickly.


                                                                                                                         Image courtesy of www.dramanut.com

This is the cover picture for the drama, "You are Beautiful," my first Korean drama and the beginning of my obsession.  While it is almost embarrassingly cheesy and the acting is terrible, this drama was where I got started, and there are elements of it that are just about perfect.  One moment I was cringing at the ridiculousness of the writing, and the next I was fighting back tears at the sweetness of a portrayal of genuine unconditional love.  Like I said before, it was a surprise.

And that's basically why I love Korean dramas.  It's all about the love stories.  They tend to be really sweet and intense.  There are tons of cheesy moments, including plenty that make me roll my eyes or blush in embarrassment.  But then there will also be the sweetest, most poignant scenes.  I've laughed, cried, gotten angry, shouted at my computer screen, and completely fallen in love with the genre.  

I have a feeling that there will be many other posts about Korean dramas in the future.  I can't wait to share my favorites!  Until then, I will try to not be quite so silent...